RmsoLOpiirD.®. JIAMJIALIA. Piiyi.lostomid^e. 57 
THE NOBLE HOKSE-SHOE BAT {Rhinolophus nobi- 
lis), — This is one of the largest and rarest individuals 
of the horse-shoe family, measuring four inches in 
length, and having from tip to tip of the wings a lateral 
expansion of nearly twenty inches. It was first de- 
scribed by Dr. Horefield, who informs us that in the 
native language of the Javanese it is termed KebheUk. 
The body is clothed with a soft downy covering, the 
hairs of the fur being extremely fine and long. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Ogilby’s description, the “ nasal apparatus 
consists of a broad membrane, stretching transversely 
across the nose in the form of a shelf. The sides are 
bounded by several parallel folds, and inferiorly it con- 
stitutes a semicircular envelope, which has a short 
obtusely rounded point in the middle.” The colour 
is brownish above and greyish beneath. In the British 
Museum catalogue it is designated Hipposideros nohilis. 
Family III.— PHYLLOSTOMIDJU. 
The Phyllostomes are, in common with the pre- 
ceding family, possessed of complex nasal appendages. 
The typical species have four incisors in each jaw, of 
which the lower are very small, and are placed quite 
in front of the four canines. The latter are remark- 
ably large, the number of the molars being variable, 
though there are generally five on either side of each 
jaw. The tongue is flat, elongated, and extensile, and 
clothed with papill® in such a manner as to produce a 
kind of sucking organ, the lips being also provided with 
rows of regularly-disposed tubercles. The ears are of 
moderate size, and furnished with a tragus. The fore- 
.mger is composed of two phalanges, and the middle 
finger of four. They have very considerable power of 
running along the ground. The tail is generally short. 
In some instances it is altogether absent. 
THE VAMPIRE BAT, {Phyllostoma spectrum), Plate 
5, fig. 18. — Few members of the great mammalian 
series have excited more interest than this celebrated 
bat. From the earliest times its blood-sucking quali- 
ties have been memorialized; and there can be little 
doubt, as will be presently shown, that its propensities 
in this respect are truly formidable. In seeking food 
they appear willing to attack any description of animal 
coming within their reach ; exhibiting, however, a 
special fondness for the blood of cattle, upon which 
they fasten themselves while their victims are asleep. 
Compared with many others ol the bat family, it is a 
huge creature, about the size of a magpie, and measur- 
ing upwards of two feet from the tip of one wing to 
the other. With regard to the various accounts given 
by travellers as to their ferocious and sanguivorous 
habits, we prefer to select the authentic statements of 
Mr. Stedman, who was himself bitten by a vampire, 
not only on account of their circumstantiality, but also 
because of tbe apparently trustworthy source from 
which they proceed. Captain Stedman thus speaks 
of these vampires: — “Knowing by instinct that the 
person they intend to attack is in a sound slumber, 
they generally alight near the feet, where, while the 
creature continues fanning with its enormous wings, 
which keeps one cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of 
the great toe, so very small, indeed, that the head of a 
VoL. I. 8 
pin could scarce be received into the wound, which is 
consequently not painful ; yet through this orifice he 
continues to suck the blood until he is obliged to 
disgorge. He then begins again, and thus continues 
sucking and disgorging till ho is scarcely able to fly; 
and the sufferer has often been known to sleep from 
time into eternity. Cattle they generally bite in the 
ear, but always in places where the blood flows spon- 
taneously. Having applied tobacco-ashes as the best 
remedy, and washed the gore from myself and my 
hammock, I observed several small heaps of congealed 
blood all round the place where I had lain upon the 
ground, on examining which, the surgeon judged that 
I had lost twelve or fourteen ounces during the night.” 
Whatever may be thought of this narrative, it seems 
generally agreed, that while certain of the Phyllosto- 
mata live principally on the juices of fruits, there are 
others that have a special appetite for the blood of the 
higher animals, and even of man himself. From this 
cii'cumstance it would mainly appear, that the supposed 
existence of certain imaginary spectral monsters, termed 
vampires, which, in all ages, have been believed in 
and dreaded by the superstitious, has its origin in the 
actual mode of life displayed by these creatures. A 
distinguished writer has observed that, “ upwards of 
a century ago, there prevailed in several districts of 
Hungary an epidemic dread of vampires, which lasted 
some years, and gave birth to many extraordinary 
stories. It was believed that in several places, those 
among the dead who belonged to the class of vampires, 
arose nightly from their graves and sucked the blood 
of the living, who fell into consumptions and perished ; 
that those who had died in this manner became infected 
with vampirism ; and that the only way of exterminat- 
ing the plague was by disinterring all the suspected 
vampires, and, if it were discovered that they exhibited 
the tokens of their hideous character, burning them to 
ashes, or driving a stake through their middle. The 
attestations which these grotesquely fearful tales 
received, are among the most singular instances of 
human credulity recorded in all the annals of supersti- 
tion. They are, in many instances, related on the 
authority of the pastors, and other most credible 
persons of villages and towns, who depose to having 
been themselves witnesses of the scenes beheld on 
opening the vampires’ graves. Some, indeed, had 
actually seen the spectres themselves on their nightly 
excursions; but more generally the subscriptions are 
by persons present at the inspection of the dead bodies, 
when, if the subject was a true vampire, he was gene- 
rally found of a florid and hale complexion ; his hair, 
head, and nails had grown ; his mouth, hands, et cetera, 
were stained with fresh blood ; his eyes open and 
brilliant. Sometimes when the stake was driven 
through him, he was heard to utter cries like those of 
a living person. It was believed that the consumption 
produced by the sucking of the vampire could be cured 
by eating earth from his grave.” Such is a specimen 
of the follies displayed by the profoundly ignorant and 
superstitious. Surpassing strange it is, that intellectual 
human beings can be sufficiently debased to allow a 
suggestive idea to gain such entire possession of the 
frame. That many of the parties believed what they 
